Poll: Nearly One-Third of Dems Prefer Leaders Who Identify as Democratic Socialists

( Breitbart )

Nearly one-third of Democrats favor political leaders who identify as democratic socialists, according to a new poll, as recent primary victories by self-described democratic socialists have drawn renewed attention to the Democratic Party’s ideological direction.

The Pew Research Center survey comes after democratic socialist candidates scored a series of high-profile Democratic primary victories in recent weeks, including last week’s victories in New York City and Tuesday’s upset of 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) by Democratic Socialist candidate Melat Kiros in Colorado, highlighting the movement’s recent electoral momentum.

The survey found that 32 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said they like political leaders who identify as democratic socialists, while 56 percent said they neither like nor dislike such leaders. Just 11 percent said they dislike those leaders.

Americans overall were considerably less receptive, with 38 percent saying they dislike political leaders who identify as democratic socialists, compared with 17 percent who said they like them.

The ideological divide inside the Democratic Party was particularly pronounced. A majority of liberal Democrats, 52 percent, said they like leaders who identify as democratic socialists, while only four percent said they dislike them. Among conservative and moderate Democrats, support dropped sharply, with just 15 percent expressing favorable views, compared with 17 percent who said they dislike such leaders. Two-thirds, 66 percent, said they neither like nor dislike them.

The survey also found support was strongest among white, younger, college-educated, and upper-income Democrats. White Democrats were the most likely to express favorable views of democratic socialist leaders, with 40 percent saying they like them — nearly double the share of black Democrats (21 percent) and Hispanic Democrats (20 percent). Thirty percent of Asian Democrats also expressed favorable views.

Nearly four in ten Democrats under age 30 (39 percent) said they like leaders identifying as democratic socialists, compared with 35 percent of Democrats ages 30 to 49 and 26 percent of those 50 and older.

Democrats with college degrees were considerably more receptive than those without one, 41 percent to 26 percent, while four in ten upper-income Democrats expressed favorable views, compared with 34 percent of middle-income Democrats and 24 percent of lower-income Democrats. Democrats who closely follow government and politics were also significantly more likely to express favorable views than those who pay little attention to political affairs.

The findings come as democratic socialist candidates have scored a string of high-profile victories in Democratic primaries. Last week, Democratic socialist-backed candidates defeated incumbent Reps. Dan Goldman (D-NY) and Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) in New York City, while Tuesday’s victory by Kiros over DeGette suggested the movement’s momentum is extending beyond New York.

Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told JNS that the findings suggest democratic socialist candidates have developed a strong base within Democratic primary electorates.

“Those who like candidates who identify as democratic socialists likely comprise a larger share of that electorate than the 32% they are of the broader general election Democratic coalition since they skew heavily to groups … who tend to consume more political news and participate more extensively in politics,” Olsen said.

“Given this data, the only surprising thing about democratic socialist primary wins is that there haven’t been more of them thus far,” he added.

The recent primary results have also fueled concern among some congressional Democrats. Axios reported Wednesday that House Democrats viewed DeGette’s defeat as a “wake-up call,” with one Democratic lawmaker describing the results as evidence of “an appetite for newer, younger blood” in parts of the party, while another Democratic lawmaker argued the Democratic Socialists of America’s success among young, college-educated voters “is literally their entire playbook.”

The survey follows another recent poll highlighted by Breitbart News. An Economist/YouGov survey released earlier this week found that only eight percent of Democrats considered the United States the “greatest” country in the world ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration, while nearly four in ten Democrats said they were ashamed to be American.

The Pew survey was conducted Jan. 20-26 among 8,512 U.S. adults.